title: Dissociable neural imprints of perception and grammar in auditory functional imaging.
abstract: In language processing, the relative contribution of early sensory and higher cognitive brain areas is still an open issue. A recent controversial hypothesis proposes that sensory cortices show sensitivity to syntactic processes, whereas other studies suggest a wider neural network outside sensory regions. The goal of the current event-related fMRI study is to clarify the contribution of sensory cortices in auditory syntactic processing in a 2 × 2 design. Two-word utterances were presented auditorily and varied both in perceptual markedness (presence or absence of an overt word category marking "-t"), and in grammaticality (syntactically correct or incorrect). A multivariate pattern classification approach was applied to the data, flanked by conventional cognitive subtraction analyses. The combination of methods and the 2 × 2 design revealed a clear picture: The cognitive subtraction analysis found initial syntactic processing signatures in a neural network including the left IFG, the left aSTG, the left superior temporal sulcus (STS), as well as the right STS/STG. Classification of local multivariate patterns indicated the left-hemispheric regions in IFG, aSTG, and STS to be more syntax-specific than the right-hemispheric regions. Importantly, auditory sensory cortices were only sensitive to the overt perceptual marking, but not to the grammaticality, speaking against syntax-inflicted sensory cortex modulations. Instead, our data provide clear evidence for a distinction between regions involved in pure perceptual processes and regions involved in initial syntactic processes.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, MEG group, Muldentalweg 9, 04828 Bennewitz, Germany. bherrmann@cbs.mpg.de
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Obleser
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kalberlah
authors.forename: John-Dylan
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Haynes
authors.forename: Angela D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Friederici
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult